Liberty Bells and the REF

[crantor]

I wish there were two separate difficulty sliders. One for REF buildup, one for native&european AI... Probably not doable, though.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Asmodeous
So snoopy, then would you say the perceived imbalance a lot of us have who aren't honestly fiendish enough to crank along on the highest difficulty levels is because the REF isn't scaling down properly to assume that we aren't butt-kickers like the rest of you?

Me.

I would say that it's several things:
1. The current game doesn't scale REF appropriately with handicap. Fixed with the patchmod.
2. You're not playing on the right handicap (but of course 1. still)
3. A lot of people see "500 units" and panic, without determining whether they can actually handle 500 units. Don't panic.
4. Failure to adjust strategy to the game / no interest in adjusting strategy (two different elements). The former, you need to adjust ... the latter, play at a lower handicap or ignore the DoI entirely; and we'd be better off with other victory types, but that will take effort.

To some extent it may simply be a matter of learning tactics, once the handicap scaling is in place. I think people don't believe Col should be as hard as Civ, but yet Deity level in Civ is nearly impossible, and most people can't play comfortably above Monarch (Conquistador); heck, I'd bet the median player plays on Noble (the third lowest level in Col ... whatever that's called). Tactics in Col are simply different from in Civ; learn them, and you can handle a REF 3 to 4 times your size (and you can increase your size, of course!).

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by crantor
I wish there were two separate difficulty sliders. One for REF buildup, one for native&european AI... Probably not doable, though.

Grab PatchMod. It slides the REF down a lot... and gives you a handle to adjust REF for any given difficulty with a simple text edit.